DESCRIPTION

gcflient is an gtk program for connecting to crossfire servers.
Crossfire is a multiplayer graphical adventure game that mixes aspects
of Gauntlet (TM), nethack, moria, and Ultima (TM).
This man page describes options for the gtk client of crossfire
(gcfclient). Other clients of crossfire may not support all these
options or may support other options - man pages specific to those
versions should be referenced.

OPTIONS

-cache|-nocache
Determines if the client will cache images for future runs.
With -nocache, when the server is about to referance an image
that the client has yet to receive, it sends that image along to
the client. These downloaded images are discarded once the
client exists. With -cache, the server sends information about
the image it is about to referance. The client can then check
its local cache (stored in ~/.crossfire/images) - if it has the
image, it creates it off the disk. If it does not have it, it
requests it from the server and then stores it in its cache. In
the brief time between the request of the image and it actually
receives it, that image will be represented by a ? in the map.
-cache option is strongly recommended anytime when your link to
the server is slower than home directory access - this is likely
to be the case except in case of nfs mounted home directories on
the server on the local lan.
-darkness|-nodarkness
Controls whether the server sends darkness information to the
client or not. Turning off darkness results in a savings off
bandwidth for maps that use darkness code (currently, very few
maps use darkness code). Turning off darkness may also be
desirable as in some graphics mode the quality of darkness may
not add much to the map.
-display<display>
The display to open the windows on. If this option is not
given, it will use the DISPLAY environmental variable to
determine the display.
-download_all_faces
The client will get all the checksums from the server, and
download any images necessary before starting play. This saves
a small amount of bandwidth, but more importantly reduces
possible latency during important play when it may not be
desirable.
-echo|-noecho
Echo commands as they are entered. Normally, commands bound to
keys are just sent to the server without any echoing on the
client of what that command actually was. This option causes
the commands to also be printed in the information window as
they are sent to the server.
-faceset<name>
Uses faceset <name> if available on the server. What facesets
are available on each server may differ. The client will
request the information about the different facesets available
on the server, and try to find the one that matches best. The
default is the standard set. At current time (March 2002), the
only one typically available is the classic set.
-fog Enables fog of war code. In this mode, spaces which have been
seen before but are no longer visible will still be shown on the
game window half darkened. The data in these spaces is not up
to date since it is currently out of site. This has no effect
on bandwidth, but may consume more cpu time.
-help Prints out a brief description of the options to standard
output.
-iconscale
Causes the images for the inventory icons to be scaled some
percentage value. Minimum value is 25%. Setting this to 50% is
very useful - doubles amount of data visible in the inventory
window.
-keepcache
Causes the client not to download upated images from the server
if it already has an image of the same name previously cached.
By default, if the server has a newer image, the client will
download it and replace the cached version with it. Using this
option can be useful if your cache has been populated with a set
of images you prefer over the one on the server, or if you play
on multiple servers and they have different image sets and you
don’t want to keep downloading the images over and over again as
you switch between servers.
-mapscale
Causes the images for the map surface (-mapscale) to be scaled
some percentage value. Minimum value is 25%. This value does
not need to be the same as the iconscale value. Scaling down
the size of the map images can be useful when playing on low
resolution screens. Smaller images will also consume less cpu
as it will be less information to draw.
-mapsizeXxY
Sets the desired viewable map window. X and Y are number of
tiles. Note that larger map sizes are likely to consume more
bandwidth, cpu time, as well as just screen real estate.
The maximum map size may vary server to server. The client will
try to negotiate the largest viewable map in each dimension.
Note that there is no requirement that the viewable map be
square.
Due to performance issues, it is strongly suggested that
expirementation is done with this value to find a size that gets
acceptable performance n(simple test - go to the start town, run
in some direction, stop running and see how long it takes before
the client stops moving you).
-popops|-nopopups
This enables/disables pop up windows that otherwise appear for
certain input. When disabled, the input will be taken from
text entries in the basic text pane. The default is that popups
are enabled.
-port<number>
The port number of the server to connect to. By default, it
will use port 13327 (standard port). However, certain servers
may use other ports.
-sdl This option will only be available if the SDL library was
available when the client was compiles. Using this option allows
for more complex graphics - true alpha channel, improved
darkness handling. Performance may be worse when using this
option - this depends on many factors. Like the mapsize option
above, it is suggested the experimentation is done to make
performance is still acceptable. This option does not affect
bandwidth - it only affects cpu performance. If this option is
not used, GdkPixmaps will be used instead.
-server<server>
Sets the server to play on. If no option is given, it will
default to localhost.
-showicon
This shows a little icon next to items in your inventory that
contains a brief description of some of the item properties
(magic, cursed, equipped, etc.) This can make spotting some
items easier, but some players may not like the extra space
these icons take up or the
-sound|-nosound
Enable/Disables sound effects. Disabling sound has a minor
savings on bandwidth. It is most useful if you do not want
sound, due to lack of hardware or lack of desire for sound.
Default is sound is enabled.
-sound_server<executable>
This is the name of the sound server process to execute. If the
path starts with a slash, this is the absolute path to the
executable. Otherwise, the value of BINDIR (install location of
client executable) will be prepended. This defaults to
cfsndserv. Changing this value may be necessary if the default
sound daemon does not work as expected.
Note that the input that the executable takes is special,
requiring an executable especially designed for crossfire to
work. You can not point generic sound playing programs and
expect it to work.
-splash|-nosplash
Enable/Disables splash screen. When enabled, a window with a
Crossfire logo is displayed while the client is starting up.
Default is the splash screen is enabled.
-split|-nosplit
-split starts the windows up in split windows mode. In split
windows mode, 6 seperate windows are created - these individual
windows can then be moved around and resized as desired.
-nosplit starts the game up with a single window - this is the
default. The option is useful if your saved defaults are set
for -split (see Saved Defaults further down).
-splitinfo
This splits the information pane window into two sub windows.
One contains all the attack messages and otherwise fairly
mundane information, and the other contains important messages,
like changes in protection values, levels, etc.
-sync Runs the server in synchronous display mode. This option tends
only to be useful in debugging purposes - using this will slow
down the display and not gain anything for the typical player.
-timemapredraw
Prints out debugging time information to stderr. This timing
information can be useful when trying to find performance
problems, or just how different client options change the time
it takes for the map to get drawn, which is the biggest cpu
consumer in the client.
-triminfowindow|-notriminfowindw
Causes the information window to get ’trimmed’, eg, remove text
so that the total contents of the information window remains
roughly the same size (20,000 bytes or so). As of 2001-11-03,
using this option resulted in client periodically crashing. The
problem appears to be within gtk, so using this is not
encouraged. However, the problems in gtk may get fixed, or this
may be more reliable on other platforms so is included.
-updatekeycodes
The standard behaviour when a player uses the bind command to
bind new actions is that they keycode is saved with that
binding. Keycodes are specific to keyboards - a sun keyboard
will generate a different keycode compared to a PC style
keyboard. In most cases, it is not always desirable to have the
keycodes get updated, as this may make some bindings
unavailable. Using this option will force custom keybindings to
get updated for the current keyboard when the client is run.
-pix|-xpm|-png
These options are obsolete. Currently, the client only supports
png graphics, and the other options are no longer valid.

SAVEDDEFAULTS

Once you have logged into the server, you can enter extended commands
by typing ’ (apostrophe) followed by the extended commands. One of
these extended commands is savedefaults. This will save many of the
options listed above. Note that the saved defaults are read first, so
using the command line switches can be used to override settings in the
gdefaults file.
The settings are saved into ~/.crossfire/gdefaults.
If you are using split windows mode, you can enter savewinpos as an
extended command. This will save the current window positions and
sizes into ~/.crossfire/winpos. Next time you run the server in split
mode, it will load these values and resize and move the windows as
specified.

PLAYINGWITHTHECLIENT

This is by far a complete tutorial of gameplay. This section is to
provide a basic introduction to logging in and doing a few very basic
actions.
The first thing that will happen after the client successfully connects
to the server is you will be prompted for a name. There are some
restrictions to the name you can choose, but alphanumeric characters
are all safe.
After entering the name, you will then be prompted for a password.
When creating a new character, enter whatever you want your password to
be. If you get a ’login incorrect’ someone else already has that
character name with a different password - try another name. If no one
has used that name, you will be prompted for the password again to
confirm it.
You now start the character creation process. It is beyond the scope
of the document to fully describe the pros and cons of different stats
and classes. The creation process has different options for swapping
stats and choosing a class.
Once you have chosen your class, you will be in the middle of a town.
The arrow keys will move you in the various directions. There will be
a red building almost directly above you - this is the inn where you
save your character. There are some signs to your right. To read
them, move on top of them and press the ’a’ key. This applies the
object below you - in the case of signs, it reads it. In the case of
buildings, it will cause you to enter the building.
To the left of the signs is a small building - this is the beginner
dungeon. Enter it, and follow the directions on the signs. It
provides a pretty good tutorial on some of the basic actions and
features of the game.
To enter extended commands, type the ’ (apostrophe) followed by the
command. An example would be ’help (apostrophe followed by the help
command). Enter command to execute the command.

USEFULEXTENDEDCOMMANDS

savewinpossavedefaults
These commands were described in the SAVED DEFAULTS options
above.
scroll This toggles whether or the information windows scrolls when it
gets to the bottom of the window or wraps to the top. Wrapping
is slighly less cpu intensive, but is generally harder to read.
bindunbind
bind is used to add new keybindings. Do you want to be able to
press one key to cast a fireball? This is what the bind command
does. is bound, it is stored in ~/.crossfire/keys and will be
used in future plays.
scroll Cfclient only. Toggles between scroll and wrap mode. In wrap
mode, when text gets to the bottom of the message window, it
starts new messages at the top. Scroll is only really useful on
very slow systems where the performance hit of scrolling the
window is too costly.
magicmap
Displays the data from the last time the magic mapping spell was
cast. This information can be completely useless if you are now
on another map.
cwindow<number>
Specifies the number of unprocessed commands to the server. The
server processes player commands as the character has actions to
perform them - having this number too high can result in
extended lengths of time that after you stop entering commands
the character is still performing actions. Having this value
too low on slow links can result in the character sitting idle
even though they have an action comming to them.

FILES

~/.crossfire
This is a directory that is created that is used to store
various files.
~/.crossfire/gdefaults
This contains default setttings. This file can in theory be
edited by hand - just be careful to keep the same case and
whitespace.
~/.crossfire/images
This directory is used for the image cache if -cache is being
used.
~/.crossfire/keys
This contains keybindings you have edited. This file can also
be theoretically edited - changing existing entries is much
safer than trying to figure out the syntax for new entries.
~/.crossfire/winpos
Window positions and sizes to use in split window mode. This
file can also be edited by hand.
Please let me know about any bugs you find in the client.

AUTHOR

Copyright (C) 1994,2001 Mark Wedel & Crossfire Development Team GTK
port by David Sundqvist (azzie@netpolicy.com) SDL support added by
Scott MacFiggen (smurf@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU)
There are a great many other contributors to both the client and server
that are not mentioned here.
gcfclient()